Banks must help us avoid Greece's fate

In January – normally a month of big surpluses because tax receipts come at the start of the year – the Treasury borrowed money for the first time on record. As a result, Britain's public sector deficit this year looks likely to be £175billion. That amounts to 12.5 per cent of GDP – a greater proportion of our national output than Europe's worst basket case.

Our saving grace – for the moment – is that the markets believe that Britain will cut its deficit after the election.

Chancellor Alistair Darling bailed out the banks and the government should ensure they lend to business in return

But if an incoming Government does find the courage to cut public spending, then we will be even more reliant on private sector entrepreneurs to prevent the dreaded double dip recession.

So we should all be worried that on the same day as these dismal borrowing figures, it also emerged that bank lending to business fell by a record 8 per cent last year, and continued to decline in January.

Not in the name of Britain: The truth about how British passports were used by Dubai assassins must be made public

No one wants to prop up failing firms, but given that we pumped money into the banking sector because ministers told us it was necessary to ensure businesses could still get loans, surely these rescued banks should be doing their bit to encourage wealth creation?

Instead, it seems they are concentrating on rebuilding profit margins at everyone else's expense. If this trend continues, then Britain faces a downward spiral of lower investment, falling profits, declining tax revenue, and ever-growing debts.

It's bad enough that the banks are awarding themselves scandalous bonuses on the back of profits made possible by taxpayer guarantees, but if they're abandoning our entrepreneurs as well, what are we getting for our money?

Passport protection

'Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires in the Name of Her Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.'

This ringing declaration inside every British passport serves as a guarantee that every citizen travels abroad with the full protection of our Government.

So when it appears that a foreign intelligence service may have misused fake British passports as part of an assassination plot in Dubai, it is a very serious matter indeed.

As a nation, we cannot and should not condone killings unsanctioned by any court. And the fact British identity documents were apparently used in such a plot makes it doubly unacceptable, putting our citizens at risk by undermining trust in the integrity of our passports.

Now it's alleged that Britain was informed by Israel that our passports were being used in the operation even before it took place. We need to know the truth behind this allegation.

In the meantime, ministers must make clear to the Israelis that, if this was indeed an operation by their security services, we cannot and will not tolerate British citizenship being used as a cloak for killing in any circumstances whatsoever.

Third-class MP

In a searing moment of clarity, the outgoing Tory MP Sir Nicholas Winterton reveals what is wrong with so many of our MPs.

Explaining why he needed to travel first class on trains, Sir Nicholas said it was because the 'totally different type of people' to be found in standard class carriages left him unable to concentrate on his parliamentary business.

Wasn't it exactly this kind of arrogance that led to so many 'honourable members' who, removed from the real world, used our money to feather their own nests in the expenses debacle? Truly, the election cannot come soon enough.